BTA anemone closed when lights on, opens when off?

[malkore]

40gallon Breeder, so it's only like 16" deep.
2x96watt PC lighting with AHSupply reflectors - 1x10,000K and 1xActinic03

Currently I've had the BTA 7 days, almost to the hour. I'm running my lights opposite real life daytime, to reduce tank heat and keep a more consistent temp. So actinic on about now, and then the 10k comes on about 90 mins later. They turn off about 8am.

When I get up at 6am, the BTA is all shriveled up backing into his rock crevice. when I get home at 5pm, the tank's dark and he's all spread out and inflated (but still looks bleached out, is supposed to be a rose BTA, but I suspect it's just a standard BTA with rose tips...or he's super bleached out).

Now here's the kicker...the tank faces East, but the south wall of the room has 3 windows, with thin fabric curtains, so lots of diffused sunlight all afternoon.

Attached photo shows him Sunday, after lights were on all night. He looks like this every day.

Is my BTA dying?
Is it responding to the sunlight, and not my PC lighting?
Is it just still acclimating?

 

[MT79]

When I get up at 6am, the BTA is all shriveled up backing into his rock crevice.

My BTA's will do that anticipating lights out.

it's just a standard BTA with rose tips...or he's super bleached out).

I would suspect it's the latter of the two from the pic I saw. I never saw one w/ just rose bulbs/tips like yours has.

Is it just still acclimating?

That is what I suspect-it looks some what stressed. You do have a good amount of light especially when considering the tank is only 16" tall. Being bleached, combined w/ being exposed to proper light levels now= stress. Try target feeding w/ very small pieces of shrimp/krill,etc once a week or so to get the zooxanthellae back. My BTA bleached, split, and shriveled when I went w/ MH lighting. If I did not start target feedings it would have been a gonner IMO. The improvement was almost immediate. Within 2 days after being feed, it started turning brown again. HTH, good luck.

 

[Brenden]

Later I was planning to get a BTA but I have mh lighting. So I guess I will have trouble with it????

 

[MT79]

Later I was planning to get a BTA but I have mh lighting. So I guess I will have trouble with it????

Not necessarily. That depends on a few things ie. the type of lighting it is accustomed to, if it is already stressed from handling etc., and how it is light acclimated in your tank. FWIW, I have no problems w/ my BTA's now-both survived the MH upgrade.

 

[Brodie]

I introduced my BTA when I had MH too. I put him it and set the MH to increase one hour each day. I started at 0 and worked to 7. The BTA looked the same way Malkore's does for a week or two, but now looks much better.

 

[malkore]

well I forgot to mention that my bulbs are 11 months old, but I'm not having algae issues, and my corals are all looking great.

here's a pic of him at 'night' with the lights flipped on for a second so the photo would turn out.

 

[MT79]

It is definitely bleached, it should not be clear. It doesn't look too bad overall though. I doubt the bulb age is an issue as of now. In fact if you did replace them now it MAY stress the anemone even more. Have you tried target feeding it? Will it accept food? That was the key for mine as I said- though the circumstances were a bit different.

 

[malkore]

I got this jar of Sweetwater ZooPlankton Fish Food at the advice of my LFS. Took about 1ml of it and squirted it directly into the mouth area, with powerheads off. It did seem to eat, but my cleaner shrimp was also up in there.

Are you thinking maybe the light is a bit strong right now, and simply still acclimating?

 

[seaham358]

Feed it some silversides or a small piece of shrimp it will be easier for the anemone to close up on and hold onto. I feed my bta shrimp chunks small enought for them to eat. It sounds like it is still adjusting to the reverse lighting only time will tell. Looks like a rose bta to me just lost its color for some reason.

 

[malkore]

well he was inflated and mostly open when I got up this morning, near 'dusk' in the tank. Maybe he's finally adjusting.

 

[Phyl]

It would probably take me longer than a week to adjust to a reverse daylight schedule so maybe that's it. My BTA shrivels/expels waste daily and then goes right back to being expanded. I'd say not to worry, but I know how hard it is! When mine shrivels up he looks like he got run over by a mac truck. Next thing you know he's fully expanded again. Mine doesn't contract/expand on light schedule though... but he does like to hide under the rocks sometimes still, especially during lighted hours. If you had a cave for him he may go into it, but with limited options he may just be "hiding" from the light, he doesn't actually look like he's expelling, more like hiding since his bubbles are still inflated and not flat. I bet he's hiding from the light. Can you build him a cave?

 

[malkore]

plenty of cave like nooks in my rocks. and the reversed lighting has been like this since before he was added, and I got him from the shipping crate at the LFS, so he'd been in the dark for close to 24 hours, thus I figured he'd be confused about light schedule and would just adapt to whatever he was put into.

Now that he's taken some zooplankton, I'll try some krill or mysis. I can only get a huge block of frozen silversides, and have nothing else that'd eat em, so that's why I haven't gone that route, yet.

 

[Hara]

as a suggestion, buy some fresh shrimp at the grocer..cut into about 4 pieces. Mine prefers hunks of food rather than the blender mush I feed the corals. I feed mine 2-3 times per week.

 

[Phyl]

the reversed lighting has been like this since before he was added, and I got him from the shipping crate at the LFS, so he'd been in the dark for close to 24 hours, thus I figured he'd be confused about light schedule and would just adapt to whatever he was put into.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I thought that's why he was "reversing" his schedule... It was more meant to be a comment on me. Along the lines of could you imagine if you woke up one day and everything was reversed?! LOL. Thankfully our animals are far more adaptable!

I feed mine bits of krill (usually cut in half) when I can get to him to feed him. He hangs out behind/under the rocks so he's frequently hard to get to. Mine's been in the tank for almost 2 months and hasn't really sought out a sunny spot in the tank so it doesn't really surprise me that yours "hides" in that rock from the light. Maybe there's enough ambiant light for his liking during the "unlit" hours of the tank?

 

[malkore]

Hara, i'll look into whole, fresh, uncooked cocktail shrimp then. wasn't sure if that was a suitable food, but sounds like it is.
so much of SW still makes me feel like a noob.